There have been many advances within genetic research, chemistry, biology, and fabrication processes. Modern research and technology have also provided society with a wide variety of electronic devices. It is appreciated that some of these modern electronic devices are very powerful and useful to their users. For example, some of the electronic devices which fall into this category include: computers which occupy large office space down to computers which are held in one's hand, satellites which orbit around the earth relaying a multitude of communication signals, global positioning system (GPS) devices capable of determining the specific locations of their users on the earth, cellular phones which enable their users to communicate wirelessly with other people, to name a few. Additionally, it is also appreciated that some modern electronic devices also provide entertainment to their users. For instance, some of the electronic devices which fall into this category include: portable and fixed radio receivers which provide their users music along with a wide array of different audio programming, video game consoles which challenge their users with varying situations within different virtual realities, portable and fixed compact disc (CD) players which provide music to their users, and televisions which provide a wide variety of visual and audio programming to their users.
It is appreciated that many companies and businesses continuously strive to improve, develop, and discover new technologies. However, these continuous efforts typically involve increased expenditures by the particular company or business. Additionally, when important research and development come to fruition, they become even more valuable to the developing company or business. As such, the developing company or business is extremely interested in keeping their confidential research and development protected from being easily acquired or stolen by other competing companies and businesses.
There are a wide variety of ways a company or business may protect their valuable confidential research and development. For example, when a company is transmitting confidential information over a public network (e.g., telephone network, the Internet, etc.), they may utilize some type of encryption and decryption program in order to keep the information secure. Furthermore, the company may install video cameras which are strategically placed throughout their corporate campus in order to provide surveillance of certain buildings and/or highly restricted areas. Moreover, the company may also hire security guards which check employee identification badges when an employee enters and/or exits corporate buildings and/or certain restricted areas of a corporate building. Additionally, the security guards may monitor specific activities occurring inside and outside of corporate buildings.
Another way that a company may protect their valuable confidential research and development is to run background checks on prospective employees in order to determine if they present some type of potential security breach to the hiring company. A background check may include the accumulation of a wide variety of information about a prospective employee. For example, a background check may include determining all of the previous employment of a prospective employee and talking with their previous bosses in order to inquire whether the prospective employee ever caused any problems while working at those jobs. Furthermore, the background check may include contacting city, state, and/or federal law enforcement agencies in order to ascertain whether the prospective employee has any type of criminal record. The background check may also include determining what organizations the prospective employee is currently a member of or has ever been a member of in the past.
Additionally, another way that a company can protect their valuable confidential research and development is to restrict unauthorized people from having access to their corporate campuses, buildings, laboratories, and the like. One of the typical ways of doing this is to utilize a personal non-contact security keycard system to regulate the flow of people into these particular restricted areas. The general idea of this type of system is that only those individuals with an authorized security keycard are able to enter restricted areas. Typically, these security keycards take the form of a badge about the size of a credit card which authorized personnel carry around with them in order to enter and/or exit different restricted areas of a corporate campus and/or building. These security keycards sometime include some type of clip device enabling the keycard to be attach to an authorized person's clothing. However, another common way of enabling an authorized person to carrying around his or her security keycard is to implement it with a necklace thereby enabling an authorized person to constantly wear the keycard around their neck.
It should be appreciated that there are disadvantages associated with a non-contact keycard security system. For example, one of the disadvantages is that a keycard is just another item which an authorized person has to carry with them as they travel around a corporate campus or within different areas of a corporate building. In other words, authorized personnel of a company or business typically find it undesirable to carry around more and more items with them.